


A History of Violence

by Archaeodigit_dima



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Higgins comfort him, Hurt/Comfort, Magnum gets his ass handed him, TC Rick and Higgins save his ass as usual, Whump, Whump Magnum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23339212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archaeodigit_dima/pseuds/Archaeodigit_dima
Summary: Magnum owes Rick a favour. Rick asks him to get photos of a drug dealer who has been selling to students at a local school. Should be easy but with Magnum nothing is. Magnum is about to get his ass handed to him.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	A History of Violence

**Author's Note:**

> There are some pretty explicit areas about torture so you have been warned. If that isn't something you want to read please skip this fic
> 
> If you have any suggests and prompts message me on tumblr on either:  
> Archaeologydigit  
> Archaeowhumps

Magnum had gotten himself into quite the mess. Rick had needed a bit of a favour and of course he had agreed to help before he had gotten all the information. He owed Ricky and TC several favours for all the help they had given him with his PI cases. Next thing Magnum knew he was on the trail of a drug dealer. He should have known a favour for Rick would have been slightly on the darker side of the Island. It was for a good cause, Magnum knew that, but it wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. 

Rick might be a club owner, hanging out with some less than savoury types, but he was still a softy. When he heard about this particular drug dealer targeting school kids he called in Magnum to do a bit of investigating so the police would take the claims seriously. This meant the Magnum had to keep the Ferraris back at the beach house and use a crappy rental car. Although if Magnum was to be honest with himself he would have Rick with this even if he didn’t owe him. Drugs being given to kids was something that pissed him off.

It wasn’t long before he saw the culprit that Ricky had shown him a photo of - some generic white boy pretending to be a tough gangster. Twenty-something with light brown hair and hazel eyes, baggy jeans showing his boxers off to the world. Just the type of trash some kids would think is a cool kid to follow.

Magnum pulled out his camera and started to snap some pictures of the guy, Rick had called him Stephen. He was just standing there as if he was waiting for someone.

“Come on Stevie, give me some evidence so I can get Katsumoto to throw you in jail for as long as possible,” Magnum mumbled to himself. 

Not long after the dirt bag arrived the school bell at the nearby school rang for the end of the day. What felt like ten seconds later there were a bunch of kids running both with their parent’s or alone. Magnum quickly hid his camera, not wanting an overprotective parent to get the wrong idea and beat him to a pulp. Soon most of the parents and kids had left the area and it was just the middle schoolers. A few of them split off from the main group and walked over to Stephen who seemed to know them well. Thomas quickly took pictures of the group. There was a brief conversation before the four middle schoolers took out some cash and handed it over to Stephen. He pocketed the cash and produced four small bags of drugs. Two hand what looked to be weed. The other hand small pills that looked like the old school banana candies that tasted like the penicillin medicine you got as a kid. Except these didn’t contain penicillin, but contained God knows what. Magnum continued to take pictures of the exchange but was growing ever more uneasy. All he could think of was one of these kids ODing, or one of their little siblings thinking they were just banana candies.

Magnum tossed the camera under the passenger seat and got out of the car, locking it. He didn’t have a gun on him, only a small knife. He had hope that Stephen didn’t have a gun or put up much of a fight at all. 

“Hey kids I believe your parents told you not to buy candy from strangers, especially drug laced candy,” Magnum commented once he was close enough so he wouldn’t bring too much unwanted attention to the group.

“What are you talking about, old man?” Stephen said, his voice rather high pitched.

“Come on we both know those aren’t just candies and kids so us all a favour and hand back the drugs and go home. Play some video games, go surfing, do your homework, stay in school, and most importantly don’t do drugs.”

“Why don’t you leave and mind your own business. We are getting what we paid for,” one of the kids said trying to be as intimidating as possible. The effort was a bit cute but mostly it was mostly infuriating.

“How about you hand them back and I only give the drug deal photos to the police and not your school who will have to tell your parents about this little candy exchange,” Magnum countered, clearly they need a bit more incentive. 

The four kids exchanged looks, wondering if he was telling the truth about the photos.

“This deal expires in ten seconds,” Magnum added. All four of them quickly dropped the bags that they were holding and walked away.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” came a new voice from right behind Magnum.

In that instant Magnum realized that he had been too focused on the kids that he had lost track of his surroundings. A mistake that was about to have a very painful consequence. Magnum turned around to look at the newcomer, only to see the butt of a gun traveling fast toward his temple.

Magnum saw white as pain exploded through his skull. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Magnum’s world came back with a nauseating swirling mess of colours, with a red pulsing core that seemed to be in time to a hammer hitting his head over and over again. He let out a small groan and tried to bring his hands up to his head. The problem was they couldn’t move, and the more he tried pain started to grow around his wrists.

Thomas could hear people muttering somewhere, but he couldn’t make out the words that were being said. The colours in his vision started to dull and the dark great of a concrete room started to make its way to the front of his vision. The memory of the gun hitting his temple and his body hitting the asphalt came rushing back to him, and the pain with it.

Magnum tried to steady his breathing, to breath through the pain. He could feel the tight and sticky sensation of dried blood down the side of his face, along with a metallic taste in his mouth. His right shoulder and knee throbbed, he assumed he landed on those. As far as he could tell nothing was broken … yet. But that probably wouldn’t hold true if he didn’t get out of here soon. Wherever here was.

“looks like sleeping beauty has awoken,” a voice cooed; the same voice that Magnum had heard right before he saw white.

Thomas craned his neck trying to locate the source of the voice. That only led to him getting hit by a white hand.

_ Well now I know it is a white guy.  _ Magnum thought.  _ That really narrows it down.  _

“Now Thomas Magnum we have a few questions.”   


At that moment his head was wrenched back by the man pulling his hair. The sudden movement sent another wave of pain through his head threatening to cause him to pass out again.

“Now now, don’t go passing out on us again. Stepehn if you wouldn’t mind passing me that jug of water. I think he needs a pick me up.”

“Got it Ryan.”

Thomas had a feeling he knew what was coming and didn’t particularly want to sit and take it. He started to squirm against the hand holding his head in place. Once Magnum realized struggling was getting him nowhere he opened his eyes and stared defiantly at the man holding his head back. Magnum stared at this lanky white man, his brown eyes were dark, he had a snide smile plastered on his face.

_ He is enjoying this, _ Magnum thought.

“Defiant are you, that won’t last,” Ryan commented right before he poured a bucket of water on his face holding his head in place. 

Ryan held his head tightly in place, as he put a rag over Magnum’s mouth making it hard for him to breathe. Soon after this Magnum felt the water slowly soak through the rag, it was slow enough that he didn’t initially notice and started to choke on the water he had inhaled. Magnum tried to hold his breath but Ryan jerked his head even farther back causing Thomas to gasp and inhale more water. He coughed and sputtered as he choked. 

Thomas’ head fell forward and rested on his chest as he tried to catch his breath. His lungs burned, his nose and throat were raw from the coughing. He definitely wasn’t going to pass out any time now, since he was sure this wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

“Strong silent type eh?” Ryan said as he moved to crouch right in front of Magnum. “That just makes it so much sweeter when you do crack.”

Magnum looked up into Ryan’s face once again. He tried to memorize his features but that thought process was cut off by a searing pain running through his skull as Ryan slapped the side of his head right on his ear. Thomas was left disoriented, with a ringing in his head. 

“Don’t think I am going to give you the opportunity to formulate some kind of plan,” Ryan commented.

Magnum had trouble focusing on anything. He felt sick to his stomach. Any time he tried to focus on anything in the room the object became blurry and the room spun. He had a pretty bad concussion and that slap to the head had made it a whole lot worse.

_ Well at least I won’t have to worry about someone waking me up every hour. I doubt that Ryan will let me sleep any time soon.  _

“What is it you two white trash assholes want?” Magnum asked. His voice was tough and it made his throat feel like sandpaper with the effort of speaking. 

“What?!” Ryan asked in a mocking tone. “Breaking already? You really want to ruin all my fun by breaking so early?”

Ryan’s voice was full of mock concern. Thomas knew that he was still going to get his ass beaten even if he gave Ryan the information he wanted. This asshole gets off from beating people up.

“Well the least you can do is let me know what you want me to tell you. Who knows I might tell you,” Magnum said, his stomach was beginning to settle again, although the world was still spinning any time he tried to focus.

“You know the basics,” Ryan moved from behind Magnum to crouch right in front of him. “Who you work for, how much you know, how much you told others, like I said the basics.”

“And if I don’t tell you, you’ll just continue to beat it out for me?” Thomas asked. 

“Of course, but even if you tell us soldier boy, you aren’t leaving here in one piece,” Ryan said as he pulled a knife from his back pocket. 

Ryan flicked his knife open and moved it around experimentally in his hand. Thomas had a feeling he knew what was coming next. He tried to jeep the floor off his face and his breathing under control, but his heart rate was not cooperating with that desire.

“Oh don’t worry Magnum I am not going to cut off any fingers, not yet at least. There is something else I have in mind, not any less painful but with less likelihood of you bleeding out on me,” Ryan cooed. 

Magnum started to panic, pulled at the ropes that kept his hands, legs, and arms tied tight to the chair. But it was useless, he was only causing the ropes to bite deeper into his wrists and forearms. 

“Struggling against these ropes will only make them tighter and cause you more pain. Not that I am going to stop you, you are just making my life easier.”

“Not your first time tying someone up and putting them through the ringer,” Magnum said through gritted teeth. 

“Well I have had quite a bit of practice with those who have tried to stick their nose where it doesn’t belong, threatening our enterprise here. We don’t need anyone stopping the flow of money to this business of ours here. And I do so enjoy hearing people learn the error of their ways.”

“I guess everyone needs a hobby,” Magnum responded. He was about to say something he was going to regret but he refused to go down quietly. “Any an ugly guy like you needs some way to get it up. Torture seems to be the only way you are going to get anything from anyone.”

The smiles on Ryan’s face turned to anry thin line, his eyes narrowing as he stopped fiddling with the knife. His grip tightened on the handle of the switch knife. Magnum knew he had pushed a button, but it would make Ryan act in anger and hopefully make a mistake. Although Magnum worried if he was going to be in any shape to take advantage of that slip up.

“Well if that is what you think I guess I should start to indulge myself,” Ryan seethed. 

Ryan brought his knife down onto Magnum’s chest causing him to hold his breath. Ryan used his other hand to rip part of Magnum’s Hawaiian shirt exposing part of Magnum’s chest. He lowered the blade to the skin; the first touch was cold but then Ryan flicked his wrist and the knife dug into his skin causing a flare of red hot pain to course through Thomas. Without meaning to, he let out a strangled scream of pain as he pulled on his arm restraints, trying to pull away from the knife. Bile began to build in the back of Magnum’s throat. Too much of his body was off or in pain.. He wanted to black out, his vision got spotty with red, white, and black dots. Magnum fought against the urge to let the darkness take over. He got unwanted help from Ryan as he racked the knife back over Magnum’s chest again. 

The cutes weren’t deep, they were shallow but hit many nerve endings; a lot more fatal stab but not nearly as fatal. The blade was gone from his skin but the pain and the feeling of it dragging across his skin remained. 

“Now do you feel like telling me who you work for? Why were you taking photos of Stephen selling?” Ryan asked as he pulled up a chair next Magnum. 

Magnum barely understood what was happening; Ryan’s words slurred together but Magnum knew what he was most likely asking. He refused to tell him it was Rick, who got Thomas to look into it. He was not going to put Rick and TC in trouble, they had saved his ass too many times, they saved his life in Afghanistan, they had saved each other when they were held prisoner and so many times afterward. Magnum owed them, he wouldn’t give this psychopaths Rick’s name, he wouldn’t break.

“Fuck yo-” not original but that was all his scrambled mind could think of. Either way his words were cut off by Ryan’s knife digging into his arms. 

Magnum clenched his teeth through the pain trying not to give into the pain, to the desire to scream at the pain radiating from his head, chest, and arms. He tried to keep his cool, to keep the pain under control but by the twelfth cut Magnum’s resolve crumbled, and with every cut he let out a scream until his throat was raw. By that point all Thomas could manage was a whimper as Ryan taunted him, cut him, threw salt water over his fresh cuts to keep them burning with pain. Magnum’s mind began to wander. He couldn’t tell how long this had gone on for. His vision had started to blacken. 

Thomas thought that was going to be it, but then his vision went white, burning his eyes; a loud bang left a ringing in his ears. Then the light disappeared and he saw Ryan on the ground trying to get up, but he was immediately kicked back down by TC. Magnum looked up and saw Rick dealing with Stephen. He could swear he heard Katsumoto giving orders, but he wasn’t sure any of this was real. 

“Magnum,” came a soft muffled voice. “Magnum! Look at me.”

Thomas felt a hand on the side of his face and he moved his head toward the hand. Higgins was crouched next to him, her eyes were full of worry and tinged with anger. Magnum instinctively hoped she wasn’t angry with him, even now self preservation reigned. 

“H-” Magnum tried to say her name but it turned into a painful cough. 

“Hey don’t try to talk. You are safe now, we are here. I got you,” Higgins gently wiped the tear that had fallen from the coughing fit. “Katsumoto! Call an ambulance, we need to get Magnum to a hospital.”

Higgins stood up and pulled out her own knife which caused Magnum to pull back in fear. Higgins saw the fear in his eyes and felt a surge of anger rise in her.

“Hey TC feel free to rough up that man you just cuffed,” she commented light before turning back to Magnum. “I am just going to cut the ropes and get you out of that chair and I will put the knife away. Thomas I need you to nod if you understand, okay?”

Magnum gave a small nod, and Higgins went about cutting the rope off his legs and arms. Thomas let out a whimper as Higgins lifted the rope from where they had dug into his skin. Rick and TC came over to help Thomas out of the chair and gently sat him down on the floor. Higgins sat next to him, fretting over the many cuts that spanned across his arms and chest.

“That asshole really worked him over,” Rick said as he looked over his friend clenching his hands into fists. “I am sorry man I didn’t think, I didn’t know this would happen.”

“How about we go make sure these two shit bags are roughly placed into the back of their police cruisers,” TC clasped Rick’s shoulder as the two of them exchanged mischievous smiles.

Higgins smiled at the antics of those two, but she was happy to know they were going to make the lives of those two men a little rougher. She looked over the man hunched into a ball before her. He was bruised and bloodied. Magnum’s skin beneath all the cuts and dried blood was far too pale. His eyes were unfocused and the hair near his temple was matted with blood. Juilet saw that Thomas was starting to shake slightly and his breathing was starting to hitch. She was worried that he was going into shock. 

“Magnum?” Higgins asked, gently touching his uninjured shoulder. Thomas jumped a little at the touch, pulling back as if he was afraid of being hurt again. “Hey Thomas it’s okay, it's just me.”

Higgins gently tilted his head up so he could see that it was her and not one of the two assholes who hit him. Juliet was surprised and worried to see Thomas’ eyes were red and there were tears slowly falling from his eyes. His breathing was hitched with small sobs.

“Magnum I got you. You are safe now everything-”

“I messed up. I got - I got too cocky. You always -”

“That you are cocky, reckless, and your luck is going to run out one day?” Higgins finished Magnum’s sentence. Those were the words that she used to tease and slightly warn him about his behaviour.

Magnum gave a small nod.

“Thomas, Rick called me when he couldn’t get a hold of you. He told me what he asked you to do, stop a couple of drug dealers from selling to the local kids. Now if I know you, you couldn’t sit by taking photos of the drug deal you had to go and stop it.” Magnum gave another small nod. “Which is exactly why I tolerate your reckless behaviour, because you have a good heart. Putting the safety of others before your own. It’s what made you such a great SEAL and now a great P.I. Although it infuriates me that Robin loses a ferrari or two to your antics.”

Magnum chuckled at the ferrari comment, he knew he was never going to live that down. The chuckle turned into another painful coughing fit; all the cuts strained causing new waves of pain. He felt himself losing his balance as he began to lean to the side. Thomas expected to hit the floor. Instead he felt Higgins pulling him closer to her wrapping an arm gently around his shoulders, his head resting on her shoulder. Tears flowed from his eyes again not from guilt this time but from the pain that he had given up trying to hide. 

Higgins gently rubbed Magnum’s back as he gave up hiding how much he was hurt. Letting the SEAL, who often hid how he was really feeling, let his guard down.. After a while the sobs died down, but Higgins continued to hold Thomas close to her. 

“Higgins?” Magnum asked suddenly. His voice was soft, as if he was about to pass out. 

“Yes Magnum.”

“How did you guys find me?” Thomas mumbled. “I didn’t have my phone on me.”

“Well you keep getting yourself into so much trouble, I figured one day you would be kidnapped. I ordered an extra dog GPS tracker when I got them for Zeus and Apollo. I embedded the extra one into your dog tags as you are never without them.”

“You chipped me like a -” 

Magnum trailed off as he finally passed out from everything that he has been through. Higgins continued to hold him tight as she waited for the paramedics to arrive. She smiled to herself thinking about how Magnum was going to bicker with her over the tags and she was never going to let him remove those chips. 


End file.
